Name: Kunzite, [ku-n-tsa-i-to]
First appearance: volume 1, act 5
Defeated: volume 3, act 10
Estimated age: 25-26
Hair: white (or silver), straight, reaches just past his shoulders
Eyes: they are a light silvery-grey when he is in the Dark Kingdom, but otherwise they are green.
Height: tallest of the four
Dark Kingdom uniform: light grey with silver/white piping (see: Dark Kingdom Uniforms)
Division: Middle Eastern
Powers: once he managed to snap a lot of power lines throughout the city, creating a huge blackout. Another time when the senshi attacked him, he was able to absorb the senshi's attacks and shoot them back. He can create strong shields around himself, and he can hover in midair.

Personality
Naoko Takeuchi describes Kunzite as "The greatest and best of the four generals", which I find to be a pretty accurate description, biased as I may be. Kunzite lasts the longest of the Shitennou, giving him time for much more character development. His powers far exceed those of the other three, making him the perfect climax to the four kings of the Dark Kingdom.

The first time Kunzite makes his appearance is when Zoisite is watching Nephrite's death through Beryl's crystal ball. While Zoisite is screaming Nephrite's name, anguish written plainly on his face, Kunzite looks on calmly, his expression impassive, even mildly amused. This is Kunzite in a nutshell. Aloof, indifferent, and above all, cold. With his white hair, piercing silver eyes, and distant nature, he immediately comes off as a chilling, intimidating individual.

Just as Nephrite and Zoisite's strongest personality traits emerge at the death of their friends, so does Kunzite's. When Nephrite dies, white-haired king has absolutely no remorse, and indeed takes that moment to give Zoisite a small lecture on using his head more. He mentions "[injuring] the name of the Shitennou," indicating just what he thinks of Nephrite's death. The fact that one of his own comrades has been killed does nothing to phase him; only the fact that their reputation might be sullied by Nephrite's failure.

The tone that Kunzite takes on here is also one of a patient instructor. He speaks to Zoisite the way he would a student or an apprentice--in fact, one might go so far as to call his tone paternal. This indicates just what kind of relationship the two have, at least from Kunzite's point of view. He views himself as a sort of teacher to the blonde-haired boy, a mentor on the ways of the Dark Kingdom. Since Zoisite is obviously so unsure of his own abilities, this would be a rather logical reaction to Zoisite's apparent dependance on him.

This may also shed some light on why the normally aloof and uncaring Shitennou would even put up with the somewhat clingy king. It's one thing to treat someone as a friend--as he failed to do with both Nephrite and Jadeite--but it's quite another to treat them as a student. By putting himself in the position of "teacher" he makes the relationship he shares with Zoisite into one that is strictly based on instruction and training. There is no warmth to be had in this relationship, no love or trust. Any compassion that Kunzite may have for Zoisite is hidden behind a broad list of teachings.

The other reason why Kunzite would put Zoisite in the place of a student is that by doing so, he clearly establishes his own rank above the other man. To treat a person as a friend is to be their equal. But to treat them as a student is to place yourself above them. Kunzite places Zoisite's status directly below him, both to make himself higher, and to further distance himself from the blonde.

When Kunzite and Zoisite are watching a bank of television monitors displaying news of the ginzuishou, Kunzite laughs at the humans for their frantic search. The man really has very little compassion for the plight of humanity (or anyone, for that matter). He seems to be amused by pretty much anything that involves the suffering of others. Heartless? Heck yeah.

The two are once again shown watching television monitors after Zoisite's plan fails, this time to watch videos of Sailor Moon in action (much as football coaches watch videos of the other teams). Other than Nephrite's death, the only time the two ever seem to be together is when Zoisite is developing a new plan. This again shows that Kunzite's purpose for hanging out with Zoisite is mostly work-related, regardless of what Zoisite's intentions may be.

He appears completely unconcerned when he makes the suggestion that Sailor Moon might already have the ginzuishou. He shares neither the boastfulness of Jadeite and Nephrite, nor the doubtfulness of Zoisite. Kunzite, it seems, is the only one of the Shitennou who is neither overconfident nor underconfident in his own abilities.

In Jadeite's profile, I stated that one of the reasons that so little is known about him is because we never get to see how he would react to the death of a friend. When Zoisite is killed, Kunzite is not present. His reaction is not even deemed worth showing, because it is very likely that there is no reaction to show. Yet, the very fact that he has no reaction says much about his personality in itself. Namely, that regardless of how Zoisite may have thought of him, Kunzite has absolutely no affection for the younger king. Whether Zoisite lives or dies is absolutely no concern of his. Or so it would seem.

And yet, even though Kunzite fails to react immediately after Zoisite's death, he later visits the coffins of the three deceased comrades. He expresses how "wretched" it is to watch their corpses dry up before his eyes, and that he alone is the only one of the Shitennou left standing. He does not mourn, exactly. At least, not in the sense that he is extremely upset. What he feels seems to be something closer to loneliness, or even a sense of loss. He says each of their names as though he genuinely cared for them, but he still acts oddly passive about their deaths. Unlike Nephrite or Zoisite, he shows no passionate emotions here, only a vague, cold sadness.

Beryl tells him that if they get the ginzuishou, the three can be revived. She uses the same trick she does on Nephrite, trying to use his emotions to make him succeed. But unlike Nephrite, who blindly follows this statement and uses it as his driving force, Kunzite merely smiles at her, saying that he knows that. Then, kneeling to kiss her hand, he says that first he will kill the sailor senshi.

The fact that Beryl tries to use this trick on Kunzite at all shows that she believes that somewhere beneath his cold exterior, Kunzite cares about his fellow Shitennou. Considering how she so easily reads and manipulates the others, the woman must surely know him well enough to see what he is really like, and more importantly, what it would take to motivate him. It makes one wonder how much of Kunzite's apathy is merely an act.

However, whether it is a motivator or not, Kunzite's first priority is obviously not the revival of his friends, but the advancement of the Dark Kingdom. While Nephrite's search for the ginzuishou largely has to do with Jadeite's death, Kunzite not only continues to focus on helping his great leader, but is even willing to put the ginzuishou aside for a different mission. Whatever feelings Kunzite may have for his friends, they seem miniscule in comparison to his obedience to the Dark Kingdom.

This scene also draws a very interesting point with regards to Kunzite and Beryl. In Jadeite's profile, I wrote that he and Kunzite are the only members of the Shitennou to kneel before Beryl. While they do, in fact, kneel before her, they do so in a very different manner. The difference is not the action in itself, but the motivation behind it.

Jadeite kneels as a servant would. He kneels in order to honor and respect Beryl. He kneels to be submissive.

Kunzite kneels for a very different reason. The way he kisses Beryl's hand shows a sort of intimacy that no other king seems to share with her. He is the only one to even stand close to her at any given moment, let alone go so far as to touch her. His kneeling before her does show respect, but by pairing that with something like a kiss, it shows that he is not kneeling out of servitude, but out of a sort of fondness.

Back in Tokyo, people stand on an overlook at night, gazing at the bright lights of the city. He appears behind them, hovering in a sort of glowing bubble. Unlike the human couples, he finds nothing beautiful about the lights. He calls it an ugly waste of light, and says that true beauty is found in darkness. It's strange how Kunzite has such an appreciation for darkness, especially since Nephrite is the only one whose powers really revolve around it. An interesting side note: the mineral kunzite has sometimes been called the "shadow stone" because the color fades if you leave it in the sunlight (wonder if he left his hair sitting in the sun too long? Sorry, bad joke).

One minor thing to note is that until this point in the plot, Kunzite always leaves the top button of his jacket undone, letting the collar hang open a bit. It seems rather strange for a normally quiet, aloof guy who is so completely loyal to the Dark Kingdom to wear his uniform so casually. However, as soon as he makes a trip to Earth, the button is done up. It would seem that his casualness would not extend as far as battles. He may be casual at home, but as soon as he goes on a mission, he is all business.

With a single wave of his hand, he snaps all of the power lines in Tokyo, causing a city-wide blackout. This is Kunzite's first show of power, and what power it is. There is no question here about which of the Shitennou is the most powerful.

With the city completely plunged into blackness, he creates a light at the top of Tokyo Tower. Since his objective is to kill the sailor senshi, the light acts as a sort of challenge. Unlike Zoisite, who tries to lure them out with an elaborate plot, Kunzite takes a very direct approach by sending out a very clear message to get their attention.

This shows a very clear distinction between how Kunzite works and how the other Shitennou work. He is the only one who really does not bother with devious schemes at all. He prefers to face his enemies head-on, rather than trying to find a way to trick them or take them out from behind.

To be fair, Kunzite is more powerful, and therefore is in a position where he can face five sailor senshi without any sort of plan. The one time Nephrite attempts to do the same thing, he is literally fried to a crisp.

Still, Kunzite's way of fighting seems a little more honest than that of the other three. He never pulls any tricks or does anything in secret. When he attacks, you are going to know about it. Kunzite, for all his unfeeling nature, is really more forthright with his enemies than anyone else in the Dark Kingdom. It would seem that, despite having little compassion for other people, he still has some sense of honor--something that seems rather out of place in an organization bent on world domination.

When the sailor senshi arrive at the top of Tokyo Tower, Kunzite is waiting for them. Sailor Moon gives him her usual speech and, unimpressed, he promptly zaps her, throwing her over the edge of the platform they're on.

C'mon, you can't tell me that every villain hasn't at least thought of doing that.

Fortunately for her, she is caught by Tuxedo Kamen, and flies back up. The senshi try to attack Kunzite, but the shield around him easily sucks up each of their attacks, much as Zoisite's earlier shield does. He sits with his legs crossed, reclining within his glowing spherical shield, looking quite at-ease. I'm sure the message he's trying to convey here is something along the lines of "Not only can I kill all of you, I can do it while sitting down." Can we say pompous? I thought so.

Once all the energy is charged up in his shield, he sends a blast straight for Sailor Moon. Tuxedo Kamen jumps in her path, taking the hit for her. While Kunzite's reaction is not shown at this point, one does wonder why he does not attack Sailor Moon while she's crying over the injured Mamoru. She is obviously too distracted at this point to even defend herself, so he could easily take her out.

It could be Kunzite's strange sense of honor that holds him back. After all, if he is not willing to strike someone from behind, he would likely be even less willing to strike them while they are crying over the near-death of a loved one--even if he is the cause of that loved one's injury in the first place. This puts a whole new spin on Kunzite's personality, and makes you reconsider whether he is really as heartless as he seems to be.

Usagi, overwhelmed with emotion, regains her memories and becomes Princess Serenity. Kunzite watches from a distance as she kneels in her glowing sphere, holding Mamoru's head in her lap. A tear falls from her cheek, suddenly glowing so bright that he has to cover his eyes. His shield refuses to hold, and the light washes over him as well.

Beryl opens up a portal between Earth and the Dark Kingdom, causing the light to flood into the dark castle. It floods the room holding the three coffins containing the corpses of the other three kings, and Kunzite watches, amazed, as the corpses are regenerated and brought back to life.

Completely engulfed by the ginzuishou's light, Kunzite suddenly regains memories of his former life, in which he and the other Shitennou serve as Endymions guardians. They wear different uniforms in this memory, and all of them, Endymion included, look a little bit younger. He remembers arguing with the Prince about the Moon Kingdom, and whether it is spying on Earth.

He snaps awake, wondering where this memory came from. Kunzite's reaction here is completely different from how he has acted until this point. Until the appearance of the ginzuishou, he almost completely lacks any facial expression, other than the casual smile, the evil grin, and the generally neutral look. It would not seem possible for such an expressionless person to show such a look of utter shock.

Kunzite's sudden ability to show his emotions--to HAVE emotions, even--marks a very drastic change in his personality, which is brought on by the ginzuishou. It serves to explain why he is normally so cold and emotionless, with only the briefest flashes of human feeling. Beryl's influence on him--likely some sort of brainwashing--was such that it completely wiped out his personality. While this probably happened to all of them, Kunzite's case seems to be much more extreme. He is the only one who feels nothing when his friends die. He is the only one who never shows any extreme emotions at all. But the moment the ginzuishou's light touches him, he is transformed into a completely different person.

As the light fades, the three revived Shitennou again decompose into corpses, finally turning into three stones--the same minerals they were each named after. Kunzite looks genuinely upset by this--in fact, he looks quite devastated.

The light from the ginzuishou enters Mamoru's body, causing everything to become dark again. Seeing her opportunity, Beryl orders Kunzite to capture the Princess and the ginzuishou. Kunzite, who is confused by his newfound emotions and memories, fails to capture either, and instead takes Mamoru.

Back in the Dark Kingdom, Mamoru is hooked up to several machines, as Kunzite reports to Beryl about his condition. Unless he got some youma to help him, Kunzite must have a certain amount of medical knowledge, being that he knew how to properly hook Mamoru up to those machines and scan for the ginzuishou.

With his memories restored, Kunzite has a lot of brooding to do. He looks at the shattered glass coffins that once contained his friends, and picks up the three stones they have now been reduced to. He says that he has been awakened, only to find them as rocks. This statement confirms that until the appearance of the ginzuishou, he was so completely under Beryl's power that he was not even aware of what was going on. He was little more than a puppet.

The expression on Kunzite's face is genuinely sad, even bitter. He truly feels the painful loss of his friends now.

After collecting the stones, he enters another room, where Mamoru's dead body has been laid. He kneels before the corpse, muttering the name Endymion-sama. The way that Kunzite kneels here is not the way he kneels before Beryl, out of fleeting obedience and subtle intimacy. Rather, he kneels the way that Jadeite does. With undying devotion and deep reverence. He respectfully keeps his distance, the way a servant would. There is nothing forced about it.

As he is kneeling there, he hears Queen Beryl walk past the open door behind him. No longer the overly loyal person that he once was, he follows her down through the secret passage that leads to Metallia's underground lair. This shows just how drastically Kunzite's personality has changed; no longer is he a slave to Beryl's wishes, blindly following her without any pause for thought. He watches Beryl enter the room, and sees the black mark on Metallia's forehead--its weak point.

Later, Kunzite approaches Beryl as she is stroking the dead Mamoru's cheek. He asks her about her promise to revive the other Shitennou if they found the ginzuishou. Beryl smiles calmly, saying that since Mamoru's body does not have it, there is nothing she can do. (Note: in the Mixx translation, she says that the Shitennou cannot be revived because their bodies are destroyed. The meaning is slightly different, but the message is essentially the same--that Beryl refuses to bring them back to life.)

Kunzite is clearly upset by this statement--in fact, he looks quite devastated. Not only does this tell him that his friends--who, contrary to what his previous actions may suggest, he clearly has deep affections for--are, and forever will be, quite dead. But it also confirms what he may have suspected ever since the ginzuishou brought him to his senses: that Beryl is lying. All of the things she told the Shitennou about the ginzuishou reviving their friends was nothing more than a false incentive--something to be dangled before them to keep them moving forward. As soon as he tries to confront her about it, all she does is make excuses. Here, for what may very well be the first time, Kunzite has clear, solid evidence against Beryl's cause. Suddenly, he has every reason in the world not to follow her.

The memory of Prince Endymion being killed as the stunned Shitennou watch flashes through his mind. He asks himself whether, even though he regrets choosing to join the Dark Kingdom, it is too late. Too late for what, I wonder. Too late for him to make a difference, perhaps. Too late for him to save his Prince. Too late for him to have any hope of salvation.

Despite his doubts about these things, he somehow comes to a decision. A decision not to follow Beryl any longer. He asks her what she intends to do with Prince Endymion's body.

By asking her this, he clearly shows her where his loyalties lie. Not only does he show concern for someone who should be his enemy, but he calls Mamoru by his true name--a name which he is not supposed to remember.

Unfortunately, Kunzite must have underestimated Beryl's brainwashing tactics. No sooner is his question out, than Beryl waves a hand at him, causing a piece of the mineral kunzite to appear, glowing, in his forehead. His eyes go completely blank and glassy, as though there is nothing behind them at all. This shows just how extreme the brainwashing Beryl used on him really was. Kunzite's entire mind, his entire personality, was altered by her powers.

One would wonder whether this happened to the other three Shitennou as well. For one, none of them show any of the same symptoms of brainwashing, at least not to the extent that Kunzite does. Unlike him, they all have some sense of personality, and show some amount of human emotion, without any kind of aid from the ginzuishou. At the same time, they seem to have no memory of their past (as shown when Nephrite asks Beryl what the ginzuishou is), so they must have at least had their memories erased. But none of them had the rest of their minds altered by Beryl's influence.

Of course, it does seem odd that he would be the only one who had to be brainwashed. It could be that Kunzite showed the greatest amount of resistance, and therefore required having his mind completely altered in order to win his loyalty. It could also be because as the leader of the Shitennou, Beryl only deemed it necessary to force him to join, so that he could then use his influence on the other three. Regardless of what the actual reasons were, the fact remains that Kunzite is the only one of the Shitennou who so completely had his mind warped by Beryl.

Once again under Beryl's control, Kunzite becomes little more than a zombie. Beryl gives him instructions--as his mind is so totally wiped that he can no longer even think for himself--and sends him back to Tokyo.

Following her instructions perfectly, he sends a tremendous beam of energy into the sea, causing a massive tidal wave to sweep over the city. As the wave washes over the people and buildings, it freezes instantly, locking the victims inside its icy depths. Kunzite grins ferally, the stone in his forehead glowing.

When Sailor Moon arrives, he is already waiting for her at the top of one of the many massive ice crystals he has created. She uses her "Moon Healing Escalation" attack to melt the ice and heal everyone, but as she does so, Kunzite catches sight of the ginzuishou dangling from her necklace. He tries to grab it, but she flees, flying straight up into the sky. He chases her into space, where she stops to confront him about Tuxedo Kamen. No longer carrying any emotions about his Prince, he laughs that he'll return him to her as a corpse.

Still laughing, he asks whether their attacks will work in the vacuum of space. Unfortunately for him, they do, and using a "Sailor Planet Attack", they destroy him, turning his body to dust and leaving only the piece of kunzite that once resided in his forehead.



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